Indian Catholic Youth Movement elects new leaders

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Bengaluru: The Indian Catholic Youth Movement has elected Vishal Francis from Agra as its new national president.

The election was held during the movement’s 44 national council meeting held January 27-26 at the National Biblical Catechetical and Liturgical Centre in Bengaluru, southern India.

The meeting also elected Mary Margaret of West Bengaland Sikkim region as secretary and John Praveen of Tamil Nadu as treasurer. The vice presidents are Kimee Minj of Madhya Pradesh and Abhilash Reddy of Telugu region. The meeting elected Sunil Dennis of Karnataka and Delia Cardozo of Western region and spokespersons of the movement.

The team will hold office for the next two years. The new team succeeds the out-going team led by Sijo Thomas of Kerala region.

The movement is youth wing of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India. The council has Bishops Henry D’Souza of Bellary, Vincent Mar Paulos of Marthandam and Joseph Pandarasseril, auxiliary of Kottayam, as ecclesiastical representatives. Father Deepak Thomas K J is the secretary of the youth council.

The movement is spread over all the states and regions of India. It functions through its 14 ecclesiastical regions that cover all 174 dioceses in the country. The movement strives to promote leadership among youth in various streams, such as religious, social and public life, to be at the service of the church and the nation.

Bishop Henry opened the council meeting and encouraged the members to focus on promoting youth leadership and enable young people to solve problems of society and the nation.